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July 26, 2008

Additional Manny Thoughts

While driving in to work today, I told Laura about the Bob Lobel story. I had not blogged about it, so she had never heard of it.

About a week ago, the former WBZ-TV sports director said Manny was fined $500,000 for the Jack McCormick incident and decided to retaliate against the front office by allowing himself to be struck out by Mariano Rivera on July 6.

First of all, Lobel was way off in the amount of the fine. It turns out it was approximately $10,000-$15,000. And the second part of his "report" is more mind-reading than anything else, along the lines of the way Fox News begins stories with "Someone people say ..." to get the most silly, unfounded rumours into the public consciousness.

Regarding the possibility that Manny threw away that pinch-hitting appearance: If you believe that, then you probably have to believe that J. D. Drew tanked last night to end the game, that Jacoby Ellsbury has been allowing himself to get rung up, etc., etc., efuckingtc. ...

And by the way, strikes 2 and 3 of that at-bat were either balls or the type of borderline pitches that Ramirez often will not swing at. (Maybe he should have been swinging anyway, knowing that Rivera often gets those pitches called strikes.)

And as far as anyone saying, this is another in a long line of Manny Incidents, please remember that the history of MBM can be more accurately described as a long line of incidents blown out of proportion by the media and then used as evidence of Manny's evilness. The reporters know much more about what is going on than I/we do, but they have rarely put their cards on the table in a way that could erase my skepticism.

Right now, this is what we know for sure:

Manny has chronic knee problemsHe did not play last nightHe went for an MRI, which looked goodThere is a shitload of rumours swirling around

However, I now think that this is Manny's last year with the Red Sox. $20 million will go a long way in 2009.

Life everyone else, I'm hearing/seeing all sorts of misinformation, agenda-driven disinformation and plain ol' bullshit. So I need a source I can trust for some basic info. Some are saying that the Sox should just hold on to Manny for the season, not pick up the option and then "get the draft picks" when he goes to free agency. My understanding is that when a player opts for free agency, the club gets draft picks. In the case where the club opts not to employ the player, there are no draft picks. EG, I don't recall the Giants getting any draft picks for not re-hiring Bonds. Sorry to just throw this out here, but this enquiring mind would like to know. Thanks for your continued search for truth and perspective, RS.

along the lines of the way Fox News begins stories with "Someone people say ..." to get the most silly, unfounded rumours into the public consciousness.

You have ideological blinders on, to say the most polite thing I can think of. Plus, what is up with a random political slam in the middle of a story about the Red Sox?

This device is used most by liberal news media, to get their agenda into the public mind. They pretty much invented the device, as far as I can tell. You will almost never see a "some say that..." followed by a non-liberal opinion. What the reporter really means is "I believe that...".

As proof I offer a small set of quotes from the New York Times, out of the 51,800 hits gotten by a simple google search for: "some say that" site:nytimes.com

"State and local election officials are still reeling from the last major overhaul of the country’s voting system, initiated by the Help America Vote Act in 2002, and some say that the $150 million in federal aid proposed by Mr. Holt would not be enough to pay for the changes." Link

"Some say that under the pressure of Mr. Lamont’s challenge — as in debates with Mr. Dean in the 2004 race — Senator Lieberman has lost what Mr. McEnroe called his “almost-impossible-to-interrupt composure.” Link

"Some say that the right, having engaged in name-calling and smear tactics when Bill Clinton was president, now wants to change the rules so such behavior is no longer allowed. In fact, the right is still calling names and smearing; it wants to prohibit rude behavior only by liberals."Link

"Some say that top Pentagon officials cast about for the most sensational nuggets about Iraq and used them to bludgeon Colin Powell and seduce President Bush. The director of central intelligence, George Tenet, has been generally liked and respected within the agency ranks, but in the last year, particularly in the intelligence directorate, people say that he has kowtowed to Donald Rumsfeld and compromised the integrity of his own organization."Link

There are thousands more like these, these are just the first few that popped up.

By the way, here's another quote:

"An analysis of federal records shows that the amount of money journalists contributed so far this election cycle favors Democrats by a 15:1 ratio over Republicans, with $225,563 going to Democrats, only $16,298 to Republicans .

Two-hundred thirty-five journalists donated to Democrats, just 20 gave to Republicans — a margin greater than 10-to-1. An even greater disparity, 20-to-1, exists between the number of journalists who donated to Barack Obama and John McCain." Link

Wow, talk about random political stuff. How about random quotes only from sources that support your own viewpoint.And how about Manny - beating it down the line. Lookd pretty much like someone who actually gives some efort. Imagine that! Even with all that hair and loose clothing!

When they traded Nomar he was batting over .300 , we have no idea how far this thing goes with Manny, in essence Nomar and Manny's behavior are quite similar, and I beleive they both raised their ugly heads during Yankee series